Msida St Joseph were held to a 2-2 draw by a depleted Valletta side on Sunday and their lead has now been trimmed to only one point in the BOV Premier League. Although losing their hundred per cent record, the Saints remain the only unbeaten team so far after Floriana succumbed to their first league defeat against Marsaxlokk this weekend.
The latter, together with Hibernians capitalised on Msida’s slip with good wins which take them closer to the leaders.
There were three penalty misses in this weekend’s matches. Only one, missed by St George’s striker Do Nascimento, had a bearing on the end result. Striker Ivan Woods, who also missed one of the penalties against Marsa, was again on target, having scored in all four matches he played for the Wanderers.
Marsaxlokk’s Daniel Bogdanovich scored a hat-trick in his side’s 4-2 win over Floriana while Hibernians’ Ndubisi Chukunyera and Msida’s Ibrahim Babatunde each scored a brace.
Three players were sent of in the Pieta- St George’s match which ended 1-1 as both sides scored their first league goals this season.
The absence of best strikers Nwoke and Monesterolo (both suspended) last Sunday might have taken away some gloss from the much awaited clash between Msida SJ and Valletta.
Yet the match provided enough excitement and four goals in the process, courtesy of both sides’ will to win this match. The draw might have satisfied Valletta more, considering the absences of various key players, although the Citizens still lag behind the top four teams.
Msida meanwhile still hold the league leadership. They might not be too familiar with such a lofty status but undoubtedly they deserve it.
Hibernians and Marsaxlokk overcame their first day setbacks to register three consecutive wins and keep up the challenge with the leaders.
Showing some assertive enthusiasm, Hibernians played their best league match so far against Birkirkara on Friday night.
Some defensive shortcomings had them concede goals from dead ball situations as they twice fell behind in the first half. But each time they managed to draw level.
Taking the initiative in the second half, Hibernians scored the winner as Ndubisi Chukunyere claimed a brace to take full points.
Hibernians were more inventive throughout and had the better chances. Chukunyere is enjoying a bright patch of early form since his return to the Paola club and his performances against Birkirkara and Marsa the previous week, contributed in no small way to his side’s consecutive successes. The revitalised Udo Nwoke is proving himself another asset with his pacey runs. The return of Cohen after injury has added the required impetus in their last two outings.
Birkirkara on the contrary are still finding their feet after making some changes in their team and are handicapped by injuries to several key players, but they have failed once again against Hibernians. Their 4-0 win against St George’s in between defeats by Msida and Hibernians, did only partially hide the champions’ crisis of form.
Their defence is leaking too many goals, their midfield fails to hold a grip on the match and the attack lacks the required punch. All departments will of course have reinforcements when the injured players return to full fitness but in the meantime Birkirkara cannot afford to drop more points.
Marsaxlokk is another team making steady progress after losing the opening match against Birkirkara. Talbot’s men are gelling well into a competitive team, full of ambition. Floriana were no easy opponents for them on Saturday and after dominating the first half, and taking a one-goal lead, also missing a penalty in the proceedings, Marsaxlokk were caught up by Floriana’s equaliser early after the restart and struggled to hold the initiative. That heralded the Greens’ best patch of the match until Daniel Bogdanovic took it on himself to score two goals, adding to his other first half strike and atoning for the penalty miss, to give his side a comfortable lead, which increased in the late stages through Ian Azzopardi’s unlucky own goal, after an Adrian Mifsud penalty had, temporarily, opened some faint hopes for Floriana.
This was the Greens’ first league defeat after two consecutive draws. Hopefully, it will not be the start of their downfall after a dream start to the season. They have already played against strong opposition in the likes of Hibernians, Valletta, Sliema and Marsaxlokk, and so they aspire to grind better results in their upcoming fixtures.
Sliema Wanderers were back on winning track despite being offered a stern challenge by newcomers Marsa. The Wanderers dominated for long stretches but laboured to finish off resolute opponents. They may perhaps be missing the absences of Doncic or Bogdanovic in attack and they are becoming too dependent on Ivan Woods’ scoring abilities. Yesterday, the Malta international was again on target. He sealed his side’s win six minutes from time after Alex Muscat had broken the deadlock a quarter of an hour before.
But it was not until Orosco Anonam went in as a substitute, soon after the change of ends, that Sliema became more enterprising, finally achieving their goal.
Their inability to translate clear superiority into scoring advantage was largely down to inaccuracy in the final pass, ill luck (four times they were denied by the woodwork) and some superb goalkeeping by Marsa Ivan Casha, voted man of the match.
Credit to Marsa for their resilience as they stuck manfully to their task. Although short of style up front, having scored only once in four matches, Marsa’s battling qualities cannot be faulted and they are proving themselves tough to crack down for every opponent.
Bottom team Pieta Hotspurs finally halted their losing streak, obtaining their first point and scoring their first goal against St George’s after three consecutive defeats. They enjoyed a huge slice of luck though, as the Saints missed a penalty and hit the post in the late stages when the Hotspurs ended up with only nine men and St George’s with ten.